I may bash the right on a fairly regular basis, but really - they don't have a corner on the market when it comes stupid ideas and an inability to be forthright.
Case in point: The Democrats' phenomenally retarded idea for "biometric employment verification" to get a handle on the illegal hiring of illegal immigrants. As noted by celebrity seraglio candidate Ezra Klein over at the Washington Post, what this really means is a biometric national ID card, and no amount of wiggling and mealy-mouthed explanations on the part of the Dems is going to change that.
I'm kind of opposed to a national ID card on principle, and a biometric ID card gives me the shivers. Of course, it could just be political posturing, with no intention on the part of the Dems to actually follow through. Shocking, I know - that an American political party would try to manipulate the system in such a way.
Cynical...who, me?
Congratulations, Dems, you get to join the right as a Hot Chicks Dig Smart Men 'Tard of the Week.
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Yeah, the card is supposed to be "fraud-proof." Uh-huh, right, sure. On ce it comes out, it'll take a week at the outside before someone hacks it, based on how quickly other such cards have been hacked in the past.
The stupidity, it burns, regardless of who is offering it up.
I agree with you it's a dumb idea, though possibly for different reasons. There's no getting around the fact that the current Social Security card is probably the most-easily-forged document ever invented, so the idea of making it harder to copy isn't exactly a bad one. However, doing so isn't going to do that much to deter illegals or their employers. First, because the biometric card is going to be pretty easily forged or people are going to use stolen cards. And second, because employers don't actually care until/unless they get busted.
I've represented illegals for identity fraud where they allegedly used somebody else's Social Security number to get a job. This is almost very nearly a victimless crime that isn't the least bit victimless and can fuck up people's lives: what happens is the illegal pays money into SS that he'll never collect and will end up going to the person whose identity he's using--except that if the IRS stumbles over the "extra income" they audit someone for not reporting income from his "other" job, and if the immigrant also uses the SS information for a credit or loan application (which shouldn't happen in the first place) and something goes askew, the real SS# owner may have his credit rating messed up. In short, the "identity theft" in this case actually benefits the ostensible victim unless it doesn't, in which case it totally fucks him over.
But in every single fucking one of these I've seen, the company that hired the illegal was shocked, shocked, I tell you when police detectives informed them that the Mexican guy with no grasp of the English language wasn't really named "Jimmy Smith" or whatever like his job application claimed. The employer copied the card, used the number, noted the name--and put the guy on payroll and presumably called him by his real name when he was busting his ass for them.
And these, of course, are the situations where somebody is kind-of-sort-of trying to obey the letter of the law in a kind of illegal, ass-backward way; i.e. these aren't the situations where everybody's paid under the table.
So it's not going to do what the Dems are offering it for. And given the number of people in this country who are opposed to the idea, many of them because of a silly literalist interpretation of Revelations, it's an idea that tastes like cyanide. You might be able to defend it and justify pushing for it if you didn't have so much other stuff left on the table, but now is a lousy time for a toxic idea that obviously won't do what it's proponents are now claiming.
All that said, while the civil libertarian in me blanchesat a national ID, I'm not sure I'm rationally leery of it. I have a minimally biometric ID in my wallet right now. If I start doing any real traveling, I'll need to get another from the Federal Government. I have a non-biometric, well-worn and easily forged national registration ID, too. Granted, all of these are voluntary except for the SS card--technically, I don't have to drive or leave the country--but that's practically a distinction without a difference: even if I somehow could arrange alternative transportation, I would still need some sort of photo ID for buying alcohol, using my debit or credit cards, or writing checks. So the national ID thing is ultimately more different in degree than it is kind and I suspect it will happen in my lifetime because, really when you get down to it, it will have to because the current SS card is so quaintly 1930s and fewer forms of ID are more efficient. (I.e. a driver's license that trebled as a passport and SS card due to the magic of computers would be kind of inconvenient--and suppose you could tie it to your bank account so that a swipe of one card, with authentication by fingerprint or retinal scan--would that be scary or the AWESOMEST THING EVER? I honestly can't decide.)
Eric, I can't decide either, which is why I was so wishy-washy about in my own comments, i.e., I'm "kind of" opposed to a national ID card. The biometric thing scares me because the fact of the matter is that the government can't be trusted with my fingerprints, let alone anything else. You yourself convinced me of that, long after mine were on file all over the freakin' place, in addition to the DoD having my DNA sample.
So basically, I'm fucked.
If it's any consolation, I am too, which may be part of my own ambivalence.
I'll never forget how, years ago, my car was broken into in the parking lot of the apartment complex I lived in at the time. A number of cars were broken into, and the detectives from the local police (this was in Belmont, NC) were great guys and went to the trouble of dusting for fingerprints even though I think all of us knew they were never going to catch anybody. And I asked if they needed a set of reference prints for me and the detective in charge said, "Nah, they're on record with the State Bar, right?" or something to that effect; "I'll just run them against that."
Well, of course he was right. My prints were already on file. But, you know, it was still kind of funny, the way it sort of put my sense of privacy in perspective.
Honestly? I couldn't care less about a national ID card. Biometric or otherwise. I don't see it as any difference than the US Federal Employee ID or Military Retired ID I carry right now. State Issued, Federal Government issued, what's the difference?
Then again, I don't believe in Revelations.
Wow, Jim - you're behind. :-)
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